the techno-social environment

The term “meme" was coined by the British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book “The Selfish Gene.” Dawkins used the term to describe an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. He derived the word “meme” from the Greek word “mimeme,” which means “that which is imitated,” and intended it to be ... See more

We're living in this constant scroll, trying to make sense of the world around us within a world confined by the limitations of an algorithm that doesn't care about truth, coherence, or consequences, only engagement.

We learned this about plat­forms a long time ago: fol­lowing the old news­paper schematic, they aren’t the printing presses, but rather the assign­ment editors.

The network is less a tool than a habitation, less an apparatus than an environment. We don’t just use it to get things done. We are, as Adorno foresaw, incorporated into it as components. We’re nodes, continuously receiving and transmitting signals. The ethos of the system is one of documentation and representation. We’re all jointly engaged in th... See more

collective effervescence : a heightened emotional state resulting from simultaneous social participation. Just as singing gospel music can bring about a deeper connection to God, so too can participating in a meme or TikTok trend.

We are in a system that is designed to blind, distract, and blur - the infinite scroll.